Miami Falls On The Road To Virginia Tech, 73-57
Feb. 24, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -Zabian Dowdell scored 20 points and four of his teammates were in double figures as Virginia Tech defeated Miami 73-57 on Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference game.
The win gave the Hokies (20-8, 10-4) their first 20-win season in 11 years and a bye in the first round of the ACC tournament.
Coleman Collins scored 15 points for Tech, Jamon Gordon had 13, Deron Washington 12 and A.D. Vassallo 11. Dowdell, the Hokies’ leading scorer averaging 18 points a game, also had eight rebounds and three of Tech’s eight steals.
Denis Clemente led the Hurricanes (11-17, 4-10) with 20 points, 13 of them in the first half. Jack McClinton scored 12 and Dwayne Collins 11 for Miami.
The two teams traded leads six times in the first half, but Tech went ahead for good 36-35 with 18:49 left on a Vassallo layup.
Vassallo’s shot near the top of the key with 7:37 left gave the Hokies a 53-44 lead. They didn’t stretch the margin to double digits until Washington hit the first of two dunks in a row on handoffs by Gordon with 5:30 left.
The first half ended in a 32-32 tie, the eighth of the period. Miami led at 32-25 with 2:34 left before Gordon hit two baskets and Dowdell sank a 3-pointer with 23 seconds on the clock.
The Hokies shot 68.8 percent in the second half, after hitting 39.4 percent in the first period. Miami’s percentage went from 45.8 before intermission to 30.3 percent.
